This pelican banding program is held every summer, which I hadn’t known until I
heard of the program from Naturalist Carole. Carole talked to me about this very
interesting white pelican banding when I saw her at the
Maplewood Nature Center in mid-May 2008. Her story on banding pelicans was
really fascinating. Before I heard of her story, I’d had a few chances to see
pelicans in the Twin Cities area when they were on the way south in fall (see
our pelican photos). Since then I became a fan of pelicans because pelicans
are cool birds and I’d never seen pelicans in Japan. I had been always wondering
where American white pelicans nest in summer. So I begged her to let me
participate in the program by any means. Carole kindly introduced me to her
friend, Wildlife Biologist
Jeff DiMatteo, who leads this banding program. With
the timely help of Carole, I was very fortunate to have a chance to attend this
pelican banding program last summer, July 2008.

Jeff told me about how this pelican banding program started: This pelican
banding program started in 1972 by
Dr. Alfred H. Grewe, Jr.
(Fig. 1) from
St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud,
MN. Al was a professor that Mark, Carole, and Jeff had when they were in
graduate school. After Al passed away in 2001, one of his former graduate
students Jeff succeeded this banding program. With the help of Al’s former
students and others, Jeff has been able to keep this banding program going.

Banding was carried out in a pelican breeding colony in west Minnesota on July
12, 2008. Approximately 30 banders, who were all volunteers, came to the pelican
colony for this banding program starting around 4 a.m. (even before the sunrise)1).
I was so lucky that Jeff generously allowed me to stay overnight with around 20
banders at a private hunting camp, which
Jeff rented, the day before the banding event. Most of the banders are
biologists. The banders came from not only Minnesota, but also North Dakota and
South Dakota2).

By the time we got to the island colony, most adult pelicans had left for their
feeding places. Pelicans are ground nesters (as viewed in Fig. 2). Baby pelicans
in the colony were approximately eight weeks old but already big and out of the
nests. The babies could walk and swim as seen in Fig. 3, but couldn’t fly. Note
that baby pelicans start to fledge at around 10 weeks. As you can anticipate,
they were scared by banders as viewed in Fig. 4. I didn’t band pelicans, but I
sometimes helped banders to hold pelicans before they were banded. Baby pelicans
sometimes tried to escape from my hands by biting my arms with their large and
long beaks. Some banders got scratches on their arms and a few got scratches
even on their faces from pelicans’ beak biting. Biting makes sense because
without their parents, baby pelicans felt as if this banding stuff had been a
matter of life or death. We wished we could have communicated with baby pelicans
to tell the babies good reasons why they were being banded3).

I forgot how many pelicans were banded on
that day. But, anyways, lots of pelicans were banded as shown in Fig. 5, 6, & 74).
I was able to see lots of baby pelicans up-close. Some pelicans got
green-colored wing tags with numbers besides bands as seen in Fig. 8. Jeff is
saying bands will be collected when pelicans die. On the other hand, numbers on
tags will be reported to DNR or something like that when pelicans with these
tags are sighted4). Several people including Mark and Jeff are
checking pelicans’ health conditions by weighing pelicans, collecting pelicans’
blood, and so on, in addition to banding pelicans as seen in Fig. 9.

Unlike brown pelicans, white pelicans don't dive from the air to catch fish.
Instead they dip their beaks into the water while swimming, and usetheir large
expandable throat pouches to catch fish5).

As you can imagine, wildlife is so tough and wild
that some pelicans can’t survive. In fact, I spotted some dead baby pelicans and
eggs which failed to hatch.

Carole told me, “Baby pelicans might sometimes puke on you when you scare them
because puking is the only weapon that the babies can use to protect themselves.
And puke stinks.” In fact, I sometimes saw about 10 dead crayfishes, which a
baby puked, on the ground. The night before the banding day, a bander also
warned me that pelican puke really stinks. In fact, stuff stinks, but to be
honest with you, it was not as bad as I had anticipated. Probably we, the
Japanese get used to various kinds of fish smells.

We were done banding for the day by around noon. Jeff was saying that he had to
band more pelicans with a few other banders to finish banding the next day4).
Around that time some adult pelicans began to return to the colony from their
feeding places as shown in Fig. 10, 11, & 12. White pelicans in the air looked so
cool! I was wondering what the babies, who got banded, would tell their parents
what banders did to them while their parents were away. It was so windy around
noon that we got wet on the boat because waves broke into our boat while getting
back to the boat landing from the island. The good news was that my cameras and
camcorder survived despite of the fact that I got soaked from head to foot.

This was the
first time for me to see a pelican colony and lots of baby pelicans up-close.
Now I know where American white pelicans nest. This banding program was really
awesome and really amazing. I had great fun. I wish I’ll be able to participate
in the banding event again when I get a chance.

Sure things are pelicans really appreciate this pelican banding program and the
efforts of banders as seen in Fig. 13 & 14, especially this pelican banding
program founder, the late professor Alfred H. Grewe, Jr. and his successor, the
current banding program leader Jeff DiMatteo.

References
J. DiMatteo: Private Communications, all the facts on pelicans in this note were
learned from Jeff unless noted.
1) J. DiMatteo: The reason we
start so early is to avoid the heat of the day to reduce any stress on the
pelicans (and the banders).
2) J. DiMatteo: Other states represented by pelican banders last year include
Utah, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Indiana, and we had one bander from
Sri Lanka as well as Japan.
3) Bird Banding Basics, for example,
check
here
4) J. DiMatteo: We band
2,000 pelicans each year there. Usually, we do those, 500 ring-billed gulls,
several hundred double crested cormorants, and as many herons and egrets as we
can, and we usually do that in a single morning. Things didn't work so well last
year, and we had to return a second day with a small crew to finish off the
pelicans, and we never did get into the other species. Of the 2,000 pelicans,
200 also get the wing tags. As far as where the bands and tags get reported, it
is actually the BBL* that reports must go to. There is a web form (address
below) where they can be reported, and the bands we put on also have a toll free
"800" phone number and mailing address on the band so finders can report
them. The BBL will then send a "Certificate of Appreciation" to the finder with
information about the bird (species, age when banded, sex, banding location,
bander, etc.).
For what it's worth, there are at least 5 more active pelican colonies in
Minnesota and I also band in most of those.
* BBL --- The USGS Bird Banding
Laboratory (BBL) at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel,
MD. This is the federal office that, together with the Canadian Banding Office,
administers and coordinates all bird banding in North America. The BBL's website
can be found at <
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl/ >.
5) Field Guide to the Birds of North America (Washington, D.C.: National
Geographic Society, 1991), 4th ed., p. 50

We really appreciated J. DiMatteo’s kindness and generosity by which we were able
to see the pelican breeding colony, see pelicans up-close, even touch baby
pelicans, get info on pelicans, and meet many banders who love pelicans. We’re
grateful to Carole for her help with which we learned about this program and
were able to attend the program. Thanks also to all the banders who kindly
shared their experience and knowledge about pelicans and wildlife with us.

***********************

6956 140817 "Janie spotted a Pelican, one of pelican babies banded at
Marsh Lake in
2010!" Pelican (American White Pelican) Banding Program
Janie Giltner: Tagged Birds
These are photos of the pelican taken by Janie at the lock and dam 14* on the IL
(Illinois)
side. July 31,
2014: Janie kindly e-mailed us, saying “I shot one of your pelicans with my
camera. It's a green tag with black numbers reading 442! I was at the lock and
dam 14* on the IL side. He was very happy eating fish healthy looking. He told
me to tell you hello! But I would love to know more about this bird If you have
info. I can send you a picture if you would like!” We forwarded Janie’s message
to Jeff DiMatteo, the leader of the Pelican Banding Program; see our Letter
205
Pelican (American White Pelican) Banding Program.
Jeff replied to Janie, “That pelican was one of 2000 pelican chicks banded as a
flightless young on 26 June 2010 at the Marsh Lake pelican colony in
Minnesota.” Later Janie reported her pelican sighting to THE NORTH AMERICAN BIRD BANDING PROGRAM - BIRD BANDING
LABORATORY <
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBl/ > as Jeff wished.